"Niger's defense ministry says at least five soldiers and 30 Boko Haram militants have been killed after an ambush by the Nigeria-based Islamic extremists led to fighting. Col. Moustapha Michel Ledru said the attack on soldiers Monday near Toumour, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of the town of Diffa, also injured six soldiers. He spoke Tuesday night on national television, saying the army captured two extremists along with a large quantity of arms and ammunition." (09/14/16)

"Details of the latest Syria peace plan are sketchy, largely because the five concession-laden, back-scratching documents in which the plan has been outlined are to be kept secret. But we do know that, as of yesterday evening, there is to be a 10-day 'cessation of hostilities,' after which the US and Russia will coordinate a bombing campaign against particular elements in the Syrian conflict, including ISIS and the increasingly dominant Islamist force in the conflict, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra). Questions are rightly being asked of a plan rich in doublespeaking irony. After all, it's a cessation of hostilities in which the ostensible enemies, ISIS and Fateh al-Sham, will not only continue to fight, but will continue to be fought: a cessation of hostilities in which hostilities do not actually cease." (09/13/16)

"A U.S.- and Russian-backed cease-fire agreement that went into effect Monday was almost immediately violated, diluting hopes for an imminent halt to the relentless violence that has raged for the past five years and raising new questions about U.S. policies aimed at ending the war. Residents and activists of the besieged rebel portion of Aleppo said that Syrian government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on one neighborhood of the city and that loyalist forces were shelling a route intended to be used for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Pro-government media accused the rebels of launching a new attack in the southern province of Quneitra, and there were reports of airstrikes and artillery shelling in other parts of the country." (09/12/16)

"Libyan forces loyal to a powerful general on Sunday recaptured two key oil terminals from militias in a surprise attack, according to officials familiar with the operation. They said forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who heads the Libyan National Army, took over the Ras Lanuf and al-Sidra terminals on Libya's Mediterranean coast and were battling militias at a third terminal, al-Zueitina. ... Hifter enjoys the support of several Arab nations, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, as well as European nations like France. He is allied with the parliament based in eastern Libya, which refuses to recognize a newly-formed, U.N.-backed government." (09/11/16)

"An official in Syria's rebel-held Aleppo said Wednesday that at least two people died from a suspected chlorine attack reported a day earlier. Mohammed Abu Jaafar, head of the local forensic department in rebel-held Aleppo, said 29-year old Mohammed Afifa died overnight of heart failure and acute respiratory distress caused by inhalation of toxic gas. A 13-year-old girl also died from further complications Wednesday. ... Activists and rescuers said at least 70 people were treated for breathing difficulties after government helicopters dropped the suspected chlorine cylinders on al-Sukkari neighborhood. The report could not be independently verified and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released." (09/07/16)

"Partition is a 'solution' that is often favored by Westerners because it lines up with an assumption that the political fates of other nations should ultimately be 'shaped' by our governments. It ignores the agency of local people except when convenient, and treats their country as an object to be divvied up as seems best to people who will never have to live with the consequences. There may occasionally be conflicts in which partition becomes the least awful alternative left, but it can only 'work' to establish a lasting peace when it is accepted by the vast majority of the people affected by the decision and when it creates successor states that are likely to be viable." (09/06/16)

"Kabul was hit by a third massive explosion late on Monday after an earlier attack in the Afghan capital killed at least 24 people. Witnesses reported hearing gunfire in a central area of the city near some embassies and the Interior Ministry, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility nor official word on possible casualties. ... Earlier on Monday, twin blasts near the Defense Ministry complex killed at least 24 people and wounded 91 others in Kabul's deadliest attack in months. The Afghan Taliban claimed the attack, which they said killed 58 officers and commanders." (09/05/16)

"Deadly explosions rocked Syria Monday, hours after the United States and Russia discussed an end to the violence during G20 talks. At least 40 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a series of coordinated explosions across the country, Syrian state media reported." (09/05/16)

"Areas of Syria's Hama province captured by Syrian insurgents came under heavy air attack on Thursday as government forces sought to counter a major rebel assault in an area of strategic importance to President Bashar al-Assad. The rebel thrust in Hama marks a new challenge to Assad and his allies in a part of Syria where he has tried to consolidate his grip on power against a more than five-year-old insurgency. ... Syrian state television said the air force had carried out 'concentrated strikes' against what it described as terrorists in the area, saying tens of them had been killed." (09/01/16)

"Israeli authorities have shut down a Palestinian radio station in the occupied West Bank over 'incitement' to violence, the army said Wednesday, the latest in a series of such raids. The overnight operation in Dura near Hebron led to five arrests, according to the Israeli army. ... Israeli authorities have closed at least four Palestinian radio or TV stations since a wave of violence erupted in October." (08/31/16)

"The Islamic State reported the death of its chief spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, on Tuesday, potentially signaling the loss of a senior militant who has steered the group’s campaign to bring violent operations to the West. If confirmed, Adnani's death would damage the Islamic State in two areas that have made the terrorist organization particularly dangerous: its sophisticated use of social media to reach a global audience and its willingness to employ the crudest forms of violence in scattered plots outside Iraq and Syria." (08/30/16)

"One of the more frustrating things about the debate over Syria policy is the widely-circulated idea that refraining from military action makes a government responsible for any or all of the things that happen in a foreign conflict later on. Somehow our government is responsible for the effects of a war when it isn't directly contributing to the conflict by dropping bombs, but doesn't receive any blame when it is helping to stoke the same conflict by other means. Many pundits lament the failure to bomb Syria, but far fewer object to the harm done by sending weapons to rebels that have contributed to the overall mayhem in Syria." (08/30/16)

"A truck bomb exploded Tuesday outside the Somali presidential palace and the popular Somali Youth League Hotel in Mogadishu, police told CNN. Twelve people died in the blast, Dr. Mohamed Aden at Medina Hospital said. Police said at least 15 people were hurt and that the death toll is expected to rise, with many of the wounded in critical condition. Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack via its Radio Andalus station." (08/30/16)

"At least 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen's 18-month-old civil [sic] war, the United Nations on Tuesday, approaching double the estimates of more than 6,000 cited by officials and aid workers for much of 2016. The war pits the Iran-allied Houthi group and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against President [sic] Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is supported by an alliance of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia." [editor's note: Hadi isn't "supported by" the Saudi alliance, he's the quisling of that alliance; the war is a Saudi invasion, not a "civil war" - TLK] (08/30/16)

"The Colombian government final agreement with the FARC guerilla received further criticism this week, as Human Rights Watch Executive Director Jose Vivanco attacked it for giving impunity to those who participated in the decades-long armed conflict. Vivanco said on CNN that the peace process is a unique opportunity to address human-rights violations. However, he said the FARC deal allows alternative punishments to guerrilla members for confessing, which is a problem because they pay little for crimes against humanity." (08/29/16)

"'The Constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates,' James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1798, 'that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war .... It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.' As James Wilson had earlier explained to the delegates at the Pennsylvania ratifying convention: 'This system will not hurry us into war; it is calculated to guard against it.' In the post-9/11 era, the United States has drifted towards a radically different regime. Two successive presidents have treated the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as a wholesale, potentially permanent delegation of congressional war powers -- a writ for war without temporal or geographic limits." (08/29/16)

"ISIS has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 15 people and injured 16 others at a wedding Sunday in the Iraqi city of Karbala. A statement released by the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency said four suicide attackers targeted 'a Shiite gathering.' Iraqi authorities said there were five would-be suicide bombers, and that security members killed four." (08/29/16)

"At least 40 people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a military facility in the southern Yemen city of Aden, officials say. A training camp, or compound used by the pro-government Popular Resistance militia, was hit, reports say. ... It is unclear who was behind Monday's attack, though bombings in the southern port city are often carried out by militants from al-Qaeda or so-called Islamic State (IS)." (08/29/16)

"Turkish air strikes in north Syria killed 25 Kurdish militants, the Turkish military said on Sunday, the fifth day of a cross-border campaign launched alongside its Syrian rebel allies that aims to strike at Kurdish forces and Islamic State. The military said the militants were killed in the area of Jarablus, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey. The army said it was taking all measures to avoid any civilian deaths." (08/28/16)

"Turkish tanks and troops backed by U.S. air support flying out of Incirlik Air Base crossed into Syria on Wednesday with the intent of taking the border town of Jarablus -- partly to stop it from falling to U.S.-backed Kurdish militias. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the cross-border action, called Operation Euphrates Shield, was in response to recent terror attacks claimed by ISIS in Turkey but was also aimed at the Syrian Kurdish PYD, or Democratic Union Party. The military wing of the PYD is the YPG, or People's Protection Units, which has been the most effective U.S.-backed opposition force in northeastern Syria." (08/24/16)

"Nigeria's military said Tuesday it believes an airstrike has 'fatally wounded' Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, but there was no way to confirm yet another claim of the death of Nigeria's Islamic extremist leader. A statement does not say how the military got the information but identifies other commanders as 'confirmed dead' in an air raid on Friday. The statement comes as Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, with President Muhammadu Buhari, on a visit to discuss Islamic extremism and regional security." (08/23/16)

"A U.S. service member was killed after their patrol triggered an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Tuesday, officials said. Another American service member and six Afghan soldiers were wounded in the blast, near the city of Lashkar Gar, in Helmand Province, according to a U.S. military statement. The Department of Defense said it was withholding the identity of the dead person until their family had been informed." (08/23/16)

"Turkey has bombarded so-called Islamic State (IS) targets across the border in northern Syria ahead of an expected ground attack on an IS-held town. Some 1,500 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have also gathered in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, poised for an offensive to drive IS out of Jarablus. Turkey has also shelled Syrian Kurdish forces nearby, apparently to deter them from taking Jarablus themselves. ... Turkish forces have been exchanging shellfire with IS positions in the Jarablus area since Monday. However, Turkey is also wary of moves that might bolster Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the YPG, which it views as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Turkish-Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy since the 1980s." (08/23/16)

"East African foreign ministers from countries including South Sudan have agreed to move ahead with the deployment of a regional peacekeeping force to that troubled nation, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday on the first stop of his latest Africa visit. South Sudan at first rejected the regional protection force after the U.N. Security Council earlier this month voted to deploy the 4,000 additional peacekeepers to help restore calm. Fighting that erupted in the capital last month killed hundreds amid widespread reports of rapes and other abuses and raised fears of a renewed civil war." (08/23/16)

"Russia will stop using a base in Iran for airstrikes targeting militants in Syria for the time being, Iran's foreign ministry said Monday. The move came after Iran's defense minister criticized Russia earlier in the day and said its announcement last week that it used the Hamadan air base for strikes on the Islamic State group was 'kind of show-off and ungentlemanly.'" (08/22/16)